'Balearic' is the name given collectively to the group of
Catalan variants spoken in the
Balearic Islands,
Spain.
Some features of Balearic:
★ Most variants of Balearic preserve a vocalic system of 8 stressed vowels /a/,/ə/,/ɛ/,/e/,/i/,/ɔ/,/o/,/u/:
★
★ The
Majorcan system has 8 stressed vowels , reduced to 4 in unstressed position (/a/ /ə/ /ɛ/ /e/ > [ə]), (/ɔ/ /o/ > [o]).
★
★ The Western
Minorcan system has 8 stressed vowels /a/ /ə/ /ɛ/ /e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /o/ /u/, reduced to 3 in unstressed position (/a/ /ə/ /ɛ/ /e/ > [ə]), (/ɔ/ /o/ /u/ > [u]);
★
★ The Eastern
Minorcan and
Ibizan system has only 7 stressed vowels /a/ /ɛ/ /e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /o/ /u/ reduced to 3 in unstressed position (/a/ /ɛ/ /e/ > [ə]) (/ɔ/ /o/ /u/ > [u]), just as in
Central Catalan. There are differences between the dialect spoken in
Ibiza Town (''eivissenc de vila'') and those of the rest of the island (''eivissenc pagès'') and
Formentera (''formenterer'').
★ Balearic preserves a phonemic distinction between /v/ and /b/, as do
Alguerese and most varieties of
Valencian.
★ Balearic is the variant of Catalan that has the strongest tendency not to pronounce historical final ''r'' in any context.
★ Balearic preserves the ''salat'' definite article (derived from Latin IPSE/IPSA instead of ILLE/ILLA), a feature shared only with
Sardinian among extant Romance languages, but which was more common in other
Catalan and
Gascon areas in ancient times. However, the ''salat'' definite article is also preserved along the
Costa Brava (
Catalonia) and in the
Valencian municipalities of Tàrbena and La Vall de Gallinera.